A relative is trying to not hurt this woman who has entered into a trance and is possessed by a Iwa. According to popular legend, in 1847 Erzulie Dantor, voodoo goddess of beauty and love, appeared at the site on a tree and began to heal the sick and perform miracles. Catholic priests saw this as blasphemy, cut down the tree and built a church a few yards away, in honor of the Virgin. The current president, Aristide, Voodoo formally established as a national religion like Christianity. Rituals are Finali vudistas please, feed and ultimately invoke the Iwa by possession of a human body. The order of the ceremonies performed by chants and drums that beat a series of 13 strokes to symbolize the call to the gates of Ginen (Africa ancestral) to the rhythm of clapping from the audience.